It’s a bit old news now, but at Chengdu Guosetianxiang amusement park in Sichuan, China, a giant familiar looking orange statue has been erected. It’s another example of blatant copying from our friends in mainland China.

The newest target?

Gundam…

If you recall, the first life size Gundam showed up for the 30th anniversary event in Odaiba, Tokyo.

The fit and finish was superb and the attention to detail made everyone believe that Gundam would just walk right off the platform.

…but in comparison, the Chinese version,…while still tall…just seems to be missing something…

something very important…

Is his antenna bent!?

…

…and why orange?

was it to avoid an outright copy scandal?

Maybe they were SUPER hardcore Gundam fans and decided to copy this limited edition model Gundam?

I mean, …it IS quite possible that the amusement park owners could have picked up this toy model for their kid in Tokyo and say, “Hey, this looks cool,…I’m gonna build one at my amusement park!”

I’m sure this is how the people over at Bandai feel about the whole situation…

…and this guy…

They say it’s for Christmas illumination…

but with the finished product looking like this, it looks more like a cheap golden ornament.

I guess when you take a look at the real one again, the fake one looks pretty sad…

Either way, there’s not doubt that the appeal of Gundam is global and this fake one is going to be perceived as the “real” thing by innocent chinese customers.

Copying songs, artwork, logos are one thing,…

but a huge Gundam takes balls.

…

of course, Shijingshan Amusement Park in Beijing did bite Disneyland itself…look it up.

**UPDATE: 12/20/2010

It looks like all the publicity has gotten to them. One park official, after claiming that the statue was 100% original, agreed to take it down for further modifications.

Another park employee denied any existence of the statue to begin with…WTF?

I guess it’s time to go after the fake Chinese Ultraman statue…

LATEST UPDATE: 1/31/2011

Due to numerous complaints and the unwanted media coverage…the fake orange Gundam was taken down for further “modifications”…